MTOD #8: Move With Context

Anyone can move – that is easy, but to move with skill in the right context at the right time for the right purpose and in the right way – that is not easy.

– Adaptation from Aristotle’s quote on anger

Moving is easy…but there is an opportunity cost to everything in movement and in life. What else could you be doing?

Are you moving (and living) in a way that is increasing your adaptability, resilience, and quality of life? Are you moving in a way that is sustainable and enjoyable for you?

There’s a million ways to move. You can move in any way you want, but you can’t move in EVERY way you want.

That’s why it’s so important to move with context.

Having a ferarri, and indiscriminately racing from point A to point B, accelerating hard, braking hard, and taking corners fast is foolish. Constantly going pedal-to-the-metal like many HIIT enthusiasts is foolish. Move with context – cultural, social, physical. Don’t fall prey to fads – overreacting and overusing “new” methods and underreacting and underusing older methods.

There’s a quote I love by the great historian Will Durant in his 10,000 page volume Story of Civilization (no I haven’t read it all):

We spend too much time thinking about the last 24 hours…and not enough time studying the last 6000 years.

In no arena is this truer than with “fitness.” Get some damn context. Look at the whole picture.

Learn to think and move for yourself. Build your own movement practice. Build your own life. If you don’t, someone else will, and there’s a good chance it won’t be in your best interest.

Alan Kay, a great pioneer in computer science said, “a change in perspective is worth 80 IQ points.” Another version of that is “context is worth 80 IQ points.”

My version in my Movement Manifesto: “Movement perspective and context is worth 80 (Movement)IQ points, and 2 years of practice.”